Spanish joy as jinx is buried

"Iker changes history," declared sports daily Marca on Monday morning as Spanish football fans woke up and realised it hadn't all been a dream.

Curse lifted
It was true: Spain had beaten Italy and were, at long last, back in the last four of a major competition. The message was the same across the front pages. "Spain exorcise the demons" was the headline in El País. "Spain lift the curse," said El Mundo. Even midfielder Cesc Fàbregas, whose penalty decided the shoot-out against Italy at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, was moved to declare: "Football was finally good to us."

Statistics shredded
At 21, Fabregas has lived through only a fraction of the heartaches known by some of Spain's long-suffering fans but he must have felt the weight of history rise from his shoulders as his spot-kick swelled the net to signal the start of Spanish celebrations. Forget that Spain had not beaten Italy in a major competition for 88 years, or that they had lost three previous quarter-finals shoot-outs on 22 June. These statistics are now consigned to the paper shredder.

Psychological hurdle
Luis Aragones's team leapt a huge psychological hurdle in reaching a first semi-final since the 1984 UEFA European Championship. "We were the favourites and we made it," said Fabregas, his words recalling all the times fancied Spain teams had failed to make it. Little wonder choruses of "Viva España" continued long into the Vienna night as Spaniards celebrated in the bars and restaurants of the Austrian capital. "I am so happy that we've broken our jinx. It is an unbelievable feeling to have beaten the world champions," said Miguel from Seville, one of the estimated 10,000 Spain supporters in Austria, who watched the drama unfold in the UEFA EURO 2008™ Fan Zone.

TV audience
For a country whose club sides have conquered Europe eleven times, Spain's national team has underwhelmed by comparison, recording a solitary UEFA European Championship win in 1964. They had lost a combined five quarter-finals on the world and European stage since finishing runners-up at the 1984 European finals and the significance of this success was underlined by the fact over 15m Spaniards watched the drama of the concluding shoot-out after 120 minutes of stalemate at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion. King Juan Carlos, present at the match and a visitor to the team's dressing room afterwards, has promised to return for the semi-final against Russia and there is now real belief Aragonés's team can go all the way. As the sports daily AS put it: "Now we think everything is possible."